Employees at Pacific Bell Vote to Authorize Strike

Pacific Bell employees represented by the Communications Workers of America have authorized their negotiators to call a strike if a new labor contract is not reached by midnight Saturday with California’s largest phone company, the union said Tuesday.

However, union officials called the strike authorization a routine precaution and said they remain optimistic that a new three-year contract can be reached by the Saturday deadline, when the existing three-year pact expires.

Pacific Bell representatives also downplayed the importance of the strike vote and said bargaining is proceeding as normal.

The Communications Workers of America represents about 38,500 of Pacific Bell’s estimated 40,000 non-management employees in California and Nevada. The union said job security issues remain a top priority for its workers and said union negotiators are trying to get the phone company to improve its offer of a 9.3% increase in wages to 10% over the next three years for operators, maintenance crews and other telephone workers.

Pacific Bell said phone service should not be affected because its 14,200 managerial employees have been trained to take over in the event of a strike.